Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Our long curvaceous driveway is good for two things; Sledding and off-roading.

The winter has really taken it's toll on it just like all the streets around here. Salt, shoveling, and plowing has given it an "off-road" feel lately.

It's also another one of those house projects that we are working on.

My men are getting huge muscles filling holes and repairing and sealing.

Our final 2 weeks of school are all about home repair and fixing stuff. That's the useful stuff in life in my book.

L3 and L4 decided to take their truck up the driveway for a ride. It's one of those battery operated ones that we've had for 8+ years and we no longer bother with charging the battery. I'm not sure if it would even hold a charge any more. But the wheels still work and the boys sort of still fit inside.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

We have old brown Grandma tiles. I've strongly disliked them since we moved here five years ago.

They weren't as noticeable with the leafy brown wallpaper and tan counters because they all blended in but once we replaced the counter tops and ripped off the wallpaper, they stood out like a sore thumb. I have a sore thumb right now, I should know.

And bruises! We had a huge ladder in the middle of the kitchen for 3 days and I kept running into it. It's now against the wall.

They kinda clash right?

Much better.

The tile wraps around the windows above the sink and most of the counters.

The tiles needed to be de-greased first so I gave them a good cleaning.

The first coat is a PVA primer.﻿ My 13 year old taped off all the counters and did a lot of the priming with me.

He's awesome. He offered all on his own.

He's growing up.

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This is one coat of primer and one coat of paint. I imagine they will need 3 coats of paint but since there isn't a lot of tile, it should go pretty quickly. I use an artist brush to fill in the cracks and a mini roller loaded with paint to paint over top of the tiles. They are textured so it's important to get enough paint on them.

I'm amazed at how much they look like plain white tiles now. Since they don't have a big grout space and the paint has a gloss quality to it, they look so bright and clean! I used the same paint as on the cabinets, the guy at Lowes said I could. I like the guy at Lowes. It meant I didn't have to buy another gallon of paint.

I'll post more pictures once all of the back splash is finished.

We put up the cabinet doors late last night.

Today's tasks: Finish touch up painting, paint the back splash tiles, and re-organize the kitchen. The only thing left to do will be to paint the ceiling but first we are replacing the sky light. We also need to pick out new knobs for the cabinet doors.

Taking off the doors was fun. All the boys got a screwdriver and a job to do. We got the doors off in record time. It's a great way to teach them how to use tools and be careful with the "real stuff."

I always thought I had white cabinets in my kitchen but I realized after I picked out Ultra White as the new paint color that they must have been more of an almond color. They were chipped, beat up, and dirty. Now, I do realize some people pay money to have their cabinets distressed, but mine were past distressed. More like abused.

I'm happy with the bright white. We chose a Kitchen Soft Gloss paint so it's washable and durable. The kitchen feels so much brighter and I haven't even put the doors back on yet.

We set up shop in the garage.

The older boys helped with a lot of the base coat painting and the work went twice as fast.

A sea of cabinets...

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This is definitely a three to four day project when you have 25 cabinet doors to paint. I'm painting both sides at least twice to get a nice double coat.

Even though it's a lot of physical work, I have enjoyed working together with my family on these projects. It's so nice to be side by side with your kids and your husband.

I used a Satin Finish and I'm very pleased with the result. It gives a warm sheen that flat paint lacks, but isn't shiny like semi gloss.

Our next jobs are touching up yesterday's mishaps, removing the cabinet doors, de-griming the tile backsplash, painting the tile with a bonding agent, and painting all the cabinet doors and cabinets and tile with the color Exaltation. A lovely white. Brighter and cleaner than the current white.

We aren't sure about the knobs. Currently we have the white balls that are antique knobs. They may be too modern for the look. That sounds funny doesn't it? We brought them along from our last house in Connecticut.

Since our accents are copper, we may look into a copper like knob or pull.

My list just keeps getting longer. It's a good thing I have 4 willing (ahem) boys to help. They are working towards XBox time today. A worthy goal for them.

Editors Note:I just cracked open the paint can. Exaltation is a lovely shade of ballerina baby pink. NOT WHITE. I won't say who picked out the paint.